Disraeli

An adventurer and charlatan? A clever rogue? Or perspicacious politician, founder of the modern British Conservative party? These different characterizations have all had their supporters: Disraeli rarely inspired indifference from his contemporaries, and later commentators have often mirrored these divergent evaluations. By the time he at last became Prime Minister, in 1874, he was no longer the exotic, dandified figure who nearly forty years earlier had obtained protection from his creditors by the simple expedient of election to a seat in the House of Commons. But he was still a one-of-a-kind figure in Westminster politics, favorite of his monarch but distrusted or disliked by most of the members of his party. Disraeli was a novelist as well as a politician, and he showed in his political life a novelist's command of the potent image and pregnant phrase. His speeches and writings remain memorable and influential. But any icon is open to manipulation and selective understanding, and Disraeli in particular has been claimed as a spiritual ancestor by an exceptionally diverse group of conservatives. Edgar Feuchtwanger's lively new study does justice to Disraeli's controversial life and ambiguous political legacy, providing a portrait of one of the great personalities of the age as well as shedding light on key political developments of Victorian Britain. Review: 'Feuchtwanger guides his reader skilfully through the famous milestones. This is a most elegantly written and intellectually engrossing study of a major figure of natural interest to AJR members.' Association of Jewish Refugess in GB 'Feuchtwanger has written an admirably concise and thought-provoking biography...I thoroughly enjoyed this book.' History Review: The Journal for History Students 'The book is elegantly written and approachable, of benefit for the undergraduate student and general reader alike.' Historical Journal 'This is a most useful biography designed for readers who have a decent background in 19th-century English politics.' Choice Table of Contents: Background and youth; political beginnings; front-rank politician and leader of the opposition; man of power and prime minister; the mythmaker becomes myth.